Page 57 of Claiming Her Cougar
“Sure am,” I say, taking up the rear of our group going up the back stairs.
I assume we’re headed to Logan’s old room.Maybe we’re being slick and going down the front stairs and leaving out the front door?I’m all for getting the hell out of here.
Logan’s room it is.Daphne leads Mallory over to sit on the navy-blue comforter on Logan’s old bed.Logan leans against his closed door with his arms crossed over his chest.I take the chair at the desk and move it over to the bed.I need to be near Mallory.
“Are you okay?”Daph asks softly, still holding Mallory’s hand.
“I’m fine,” she assures us.“I’m used to this.Well, doing this in front of my employer is a new twist, but this is what I’ve heard all my life.It is what it is.”
“What it is, is bullshit,” I say.“What the fuck is wrong with them?”
“Liam.”
“Why do you care about their opinions so much?They don’t care about you.”
Mallory’s suddenly too-wide eyes and Daphne’s sharp intake of breath clue me in that I probably shouldn’t have said that.Too bad.It’s true.You don’t treat your own child, or anyone you care about and respect, the way they are treating her.
“Liam!They’re my parents.Of course they care about me.”Mallory’s shoulders slump as she lets out a weary sigh.“I know they aren’t like your parents, but they’re who I have.”
Mallory looks to Daphne for support, like it’s better to have those asshats as parents than to be an orphan like Daphne is.
“I don’t know what to say, Mallory.I miss my parents every day, but our relationship wasn’t like yours.”
“They are who they are.They’re old-school shifters.I just ignore them and move on.”
I reach out and take her other hand, giving it a gentle squeeze.“You weren’t ignoring them, though.I could see you shrinking with the blow of every word she let loose.I hated seeing you like that.You’re wonderful, and you deserve to be treated like the treasure you are.”I press a kiss to the crown of her head as she sucks in a shuddering breath.My heart constricts at the sound.I want to protect her from anything that hurts her or makes her sad.I’m falling for her.I wish she was falling for me.
Daphne watches us with wide eyes.I think we just confirmed what she was hoping for.She’s going to be so disappointed when she finds out we aren’t dating.We’re just sleeping together.Well, trying to sleep together.
Mallory squeezes my hand and looks up at me.Her normally bright green eyes are more like a pine forest in fog now.It kills me to see her like this and feel powerless to make it better.Taking a deep breath, like she’s centering herself, she musters a smile and turns to Logan.
“What are we going to say you showed me up here?”Mallory asks.“Mom is probably going to be curious, and I want to have an answer handy.”
“Oh, yeah,” Logan looks around his room.He hasn’t really lived here for a couple years, although he crashed here when he was in the country between assignments.Once he and Daphne became a couple, he moved in with her full-time.
Mallory looks at the framed photos on the wall above the desk.“What’s that one?”She asks, pointing to a castle.
“It’s Inverness Castle in Scotland,” Logan says.
“Let’s go with that.I’m Scottish on Mom’s side of the family.”
“That explains where the red hair comes from,” I say teasingly.
Mallory sticks her tongue out at me.If she can tease me back, then she’s doing all right.Some of the tension leaves my body.We can go back downstairs, and I can make it through the rest of the game without going ballistic.If Mallory is okay, I’m okay.
Logan and I go downstairs first, Daphne and Mallory trailing behind, talking.I assume Daphne asks what’s going on between us because I hear Mallory answer that we’re just friends.
My cougar stirs restlessly at that.He apparently has decided Mallory Carter is his mate and his to protect.Down, cat.We need to be patient.He growls in protest, and there’s a rumble in my chest.Logan looks at me with raised eyebrows.I shake my head.Now is not the time to share that Mallory Carter is my mate.I can see our future so clearly, including more afternoons like this with my family.Thank goodness her parents live in Florida.We should only have to put up with them infrequently.Date nights with Logan and Daphne.Nights at her home, making use of that bed.In time, we could get married and start having kids.I don’t care if they shift or not—I would love them because they come from me and Mallory.
I can see it all so clearly.If only Mallory would consider it and see it too.Maybe since she doesn’t shift, she doesn’t feel the mating call the same way I do, but how can she not feel the connection we have as a man and a woman?We’ve had it from the moment our eyes met across the club in Vegas.Hell, considering all the connections we have and how many of our orbits overlap, it truly is fate.We would’ve met eventually if we hadn’t met in Vegas.
I’m grateful now we met in Vegas first and could connect without all the baggage Mallory insists on carrying.Maybe I can’t convince her we’re fated mates in the shifter sense, but she’d have to be purposely blind to not see the hand fate has played in our being together now and how right it is.
The second half of the game passes amazingly well.Mallory’s parents stop with the snarky comments and are polite guests.I’m assuming something was said while we were upstairs.Hopefully we’ll get the scoop later.Robert and Beth leave in a flurry of hugs, handshakes, and “we should do this again” proclamations.
Yeah.No.
As soon as her parents pull away from the curb, Mom and Aunt Holly hug Mallory and reassure her she’s smart and beautiful and her parents love her.I want in on it, but Daphne is the lucky one chosen to be included.
